Over £2.75 million is being sought for Loughton House, a late Georgian home on 226 acres off the Dublin road between Nenagh and Roscrea. The estate, at the southernmost tip of Co Offaly, a mile from the village of Moneygall and close to Lough Derg, will easily exceed the guide price, according to Robert Ganly, of Ganly Walters. The joint agent is Bill Montgomery of Sothebys International Realty.
One of the unusual features of the house is the King's Room, a large bedroom remodelled for the visit by King George IV in 1821. In the event, it seems that the king did not call to Loughton or any of the other big houses prepared especially for him. Nevertheless, the regal bedroom is still one of the great attractions of Loughton. It is one of 13 bedrooms, some of them with sumptuously carved beds and furniture, and all with open fireplaces. Guy Atkinson says he has mixed feelings about parting with the house which he inherited in 1970 from his second cousins, Thora and Sheelah Trench. Since then he has added a grass airstrip and hangar, a tennis court and a 40 ft by 20 ft swimmingpool under a plastic tunnel.
The 15,000 sq ft house has been centrally heated since 1977 and a new kitchen installed. "It is all a bit of an adventure for us. We will sell it and see how we go," he says. The house, which apparently takes its name from the townland Ballinlough, has a mixed range of period furniture, curios, paintings and fixtures. Visitors cannot fail to notice a Bengal tiger skin which decorates one wall alongside a collection of gazelle heads and water buffalo horns. Anecdotal evidence suggests that children are reluctant to put their fingers between the teeth of the malevolent mouth.
The property has been owned by the same family since Cromwellian times. Originally built by the Pepper family, it passed to Lord Bloomfield, private secretary to the Prince Regent in 1828, reputedly in exchange for a grey charger.
The present house was built in 1777 on the site of an earlier house and unusually for a late Georgian building, has cavity walls. The new entrance is to the side, replacing the former south-facing frontage which is now two-thirds covered by Virginia creeper and clematis. The drawingroom and diningroom were added in the 1830s by architect James Pain.
Lord Bloomfield's son, the second Lord Bloomfield, passed the property on to the Trenchs of nearby Cangort Park, the family home of Mr Atkinson.
It took an hour-and-a-half to view the house and contents, admittedly at a leisurely pace, but that gives an indication of the size of the place, which includes a roof parapet and a basement with wine cellar. A gravity feed from a well fills the house's reservoir. "We have fantastic water," says Mr Atkinson.
The ground floor has five main reception rooms - a billiards room, drawingroom with three bay windows, library with built-in mahogany bookcases, diningroom and sittingroom. All have ornate fireplaces.
The billiards room has panelled doors and shutters with simulated marquetry decoration. The rather odd pokerwork was done by a former occupier of the house, whose inscription reads: "Burnt by Dora Trench, Loughton, October, 1897". A cantilever stone staircase leads to the first floor.
The estate includes a derelict gate lodge, a three-bedroom farm manager's lodge, servant quarters, coach-houses and stables, bell tower and a range of farm buildings. A mature oak forest and the ruins of a tower house complete the Byronic setting. Most of the land is under tillage with spring barley; a pheasant shoot has been run on the farm for the past 13 years.
There are no ghosts, Mr Atkinson adds, although a Cromwellian soldier is supposed to guard the tower house.
